[Buildroot] BR2_EXTERNAL - Broken in 2015.08.01????

[Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@free-electrons.com>]

Dear Stephen Beckwith,

On Fri, 6 Nov 2015 10:22:03 -0500, Stephen Beckwith wrote:

> *And you also state:*
> 
> Package "foo" *must*:
> 
>  * Be implemented in package/foo/foo.mk

Yes, in the main Buildroot tree. In the BR2_EXTERNAL tree, it can be
anywhere you want, as long as the directory name is "foo". I.e, it can
be in

	baz/boz/foo/foo.mk
	package/vendor/foo/foo.mk

> Back to the original problem:  I have a External setup, with "packages"
> specified in a custom directory structure, NOT in a "package" directory yet
> the top level make does NOT build these external packages.  Why?  They are
> only built if I explicity:  make <package> - then it works just fine. . .

Because you named wrongly the Config.in option for those packages....

> I modified the ?leaf? config.in to declare BR2_EXTERNAL_<PKG> - re-run the
> menu config, deslect, re-select, save, verify that the BR2_EXTERNAL_<PKG>
> =y is in the top level .config.

Why do you insist on using BR2_EXTERNAL_<pkg>, while I have been
telling you (as well as the manual and the training slides) that you
should be using BR2_PACKAGE_<pkg> ?

If you don't read what I write, how do you expect things to work ?

> Still does not build from ?make? (there is build directory present.)

Yes, because your Config.in options incorrectly start with
BR2_EXTERNAL_ while they should start with BR2_PACKAGE_.

The code that decides if a package should be built or not is in
package/pkg-generic.mk, and the relevant pieces are:

$(2)_KCONFIG_VAR = BR2_PACKAGE_$(2)
...
ifeq ($$($$($(2)_KCONFIG_VAR)),y)
PACKAGES += $(1)
endif

So, a package named 'foo' is built if BR2_PACKAGE_FOO=y.

Best regards,

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, CTO, Free Electrons
Embedded Linux, Kernel and Android engineering
http://free-electrons.com